kaomoji

[ kou-moh-jee ]

noun

, plural kao·mo·ji, kao·mo·jis.

1. Digital Technology. a Japanese-style emoticon that uses Japanese characters, Latin letters, and punctuation marks in combination to represent a facial expression that conveys an emotion. Unlike emoticons used by English speakers that depict the face horizontally, kaomoji are vertical depictions of faces, as (^.^) smiling eyes, (^_~) a winking eye, (>.<;) a bead of sweat, or sometimes include depiction of arms, as if raised in celebration \ ^^ /.

Word History and Origins

Origin of kaomoji¹

First recorded in 1985–90; from Japanese kao “face” + moji “(written) character”; emoji ( def )